Langstone Harbour Board cannot help run the ferry service, meeting is told

Questions were raised about why the Langstone Harbour Board cannot dip into some of its reserves to get the ferry going.

Vice-chairwoman Councillor Jackie Branson said: ‘We can’t run ferries. We are not allowed to. It’s not within our remit.’ She said the average annual cost for maintaining the pontoons was £32,000.

The current licence fee for a ferry service is about £19,500. Questions were raised about the cost as charter fishing boats pay an annual fee of around £164. But Cllr Branson said the ferry was the main user of the pontoons.